Work begins...

I have so much to write about my 1st few days of work, but sadly this computer I am trying to work on is very slow and my typing is delayed... so I will try my best.

I arrived at the daycare early Monday morning and was greeted by nearly 100 screaming children! We began setting up for class right away and I began reviewing body parts with the oldest group of children. They are learning simple english right now so it is still VERY difficult to communicate with them. The first thing I noticed with all of the children was their terrible coughs. All around me I could hear very chesty coughs throughout the day. There are children ranging from infants to six years old. I believe many of the children may have hepatitis because the whites of their eyes are very yellow. Many appear to have ringworm as well. Several children have deep cuts that we need to clean and bandage each day. There are about 5 infants that are laid in a corner of the daycare building on a flat piece of foam. They are left alone crying all day. Their diapers are not changed and they are not held. There are sometimes only 2 women that help run all of the 100 children. With us volunteers there it really makes a difference. The babies have contstant running noses and their eyes water all day even when they are not crying. My first day was VERY challenging because it is so hard to know that these kids are so sick and they will never see a doctor (most likely). I tried all day to hold one baby while I did each lesson which is not the easiest task. It was just too hard to see them lying on the ground all day in dirty diapers screaming and crying. WHen I called one of the older boys up to the front of the room to draw a body part he quietly started weeping because he has such terrible headaches the teacher said. He also said his tummy hurt. You could tell this child was in excruciating pain. I can't explain the feeling you get when you hear children crying, so many at once, and you know they are crying in pain not just for attention.

At about 10 am the children are fed something they call "pup"...it is a white pasty kind of oatmeal, except I don't think it is even oatmeal. Each child gets a tiny scoop on a plate. Beforehand we wash their hands; apparently they washed their hands for the first time last week! The volunteers showed them last week and they were so confused because they had never seen anyone do such a thing to their hands. Later in the day I found a child about 1 year old eating some leftover pup outside on the ground. The child was obviously hungry and could not feed herself. I fed her and she ate a whole plate of "pup". It just made me realize that children can so easily go forgotten at this daycare and not eat. Even worse they could go missing and nobody would ever notice! There are just too many and not even people to care for them.

I left that afternoon feeling overwhelmed with what I had just seen and covered in the tears and snot of the kids and babies. In our country we are worried about our children getting germs in thir mouth when they drop their binky on the floor and over here in Africa the children eat dirt right off the ground! My stomach was upset for awhile but then I had to move on to my Zulu language lesson which was quite entertaining. Everyone had a good laugh each time I recited sentences because I sound like I am speaking japanese. At one point I felt like I was ordering sushi. It was a good laugh we all needed after that devastating first exposure to the daycare. I had seen pictures and even taken a tour of the village but I never imagined it could be that bad. I never imagined that many children without parents being so sick and neglected. I still can't...

Our power is off for about 8 hours each day...in scheduled blocks. They need to share electricity around here...so we had a night of no power last night and ate dinner by candlelight, which was nice. We also have no running water at night or in the early morning, because there is a shortage of that as well. It's just very different.

Today I started at the daycare and then went to a HIV support group. I was just there to answer any questions they may have. There really weren't any except for advice about a woman that is HIV positive and is afraid to tell her husband because he may kill her. I had no idea what to say to this. These groups are very challenging for me because everything needs to be translated. Later in the afternoon I went to teach a HIV education class to adults in the Khulu village...but nobody showed up, which was very disappointing. usually about 13 adults show up. We think we may need to post more flyers and go door to door. We will see. Then I met up with the rest of the group to work on lesson plans for tomorrow.

I am so extremely tired right now, as anyone that has worked with 100 children may understand. :-) I really would like to talk to someone at home, I tried my mom but she did not answer and Aaron was unable to make the call. I miss everyone so much!!

I know there is so much I am forgetting to say but I will think of it all later. I need to take pictures of the kids because you will not believe it until you really see these children. I will also try to take a video of them singing their prayers and a song called "melody in my heart".

Off to dinner at the house with everyone else. I LOVE YOU EVERYONE! :-)